US teacher claims she was fired for giving students bad grades

A Florida teacher has been fired for refusing to give her students half-credits when they don't hand in their work.

Diana Tirado, 52, worked at West Gate School in Lucie, where a 'no zero' policy requires teachers to give students no less than a 50 per cent grade on assignments.

Tirado refused to follow the policy and was fired.

She left a note on her class white board for her students which read, "Bye kids. Mrs Tirado loves you and wishes you the best in life! I have been fired for refusing to give you a 50 per cent for not handing anything in."

She shared a photo of the note on her Facebook page and it has gone viral, receiving almost 2,000 likes as of Thursday morning and 2,300 shares, not to mention hundreds of comments.

Since the initial post, the teacher has been overwhelmed with support for her fight.

She later posted, "I am reading all of the posts you have written and reflecting upon them. The reason I took on this fight was because it was ridiculous.

"Teaching should not be this hard. Teachers teach content, children do the assignments to the best of their ability and teachers grade that work based on a grading scale that has been around a very long time," she says. "Teachers also provide numerous attempts to get the work collected so they can give a child a grade. By nature, most teachers are loving souls who want to see students succeed.

"We do above and beyond actual teaching to give them the support they need," Tirado continues. "Are we perfect? NO. We make mistakes like all other human beings, but I know teachers work their butts off to help children to be the best people they can be!!!"

The teacher says the 'no zero' policy is 'ridiculous'. (Facebook)

Tirado has been a teacher for 17 years and has been at the school since August.

She says when she was fired on September 14, no specific reason was stated in her termination letter from the principal and because she was still on probation having been recently fired, no cause was required.

The teacher told WPTV she assigned her students a notebook project and gave them two weeks to complete it. It wasn't until a few students failed to hand in the work that she learned of the school's 'no zero' policy.

She says she asked school administrators about the policy and was told to give them a 50.

Kerry Padrick, the chief communications officer for St Lucie Public School denied there is a 'no zero' policy in operation at the school.

In a media statement he said, "The District's Uniform Grading System utilises letter grades A-F, numerical grades 100-0 and grade point averages from 4-0."

In another statement from the District, sent to WPTV, the school claimed Tirado's performance was deemed "sub-standard" and her interactions with students, staff, and parents "lacked professionalism and created a toxic culture on the school's campus", adding that they'd received "numerous student and parent complaints as well as concerns from colleagues."

"During her brief time of employment at West Gate, the school fielded numerous student and parent complaints as well as concerns from colleagues," the statement claims. "Based on new information shared with school administrators, an investigation of possible physical abuse is underway."

Tirado has denied the claims.

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